The purposeful and intentional online bullying happening through various OLHS instagram accounts needs to stop.

As seen on Tik Ttok, creating Instagram accounts to expose, tease and mock people at school for various things like bad parking, posture and sleeping has been a popular trend following the reign of “devious licks.” After someone was caught for the devious licks at school, we all remember what happened. There were rumors of suspensions, bathroom utility was closed off and taped to the wall so people couldn’t steal it, and all of Olentangy’s highschool and middle schools janitors had to take increasing precautions to make sure it wouldn’t happen again. And then once the trend died, it stopped. 

This “trend” of abusing the power of having an Instagram account and deliberately posting people or information without people’s permission is real example of online bullying whether it is the owners intention or not. 

Our school policy’s official definition of cyberbullying stands as, “The act of harassment that takes place via some method of technological media…it does not matter where the offense originates, even if off grounds, if the effect of such acts makes a transition to school grounds it is under our best judgment to take appropriate action.” 

Similarly, Instagram also has an official bullying policy and is able to ban or restrict accounts.  In the event of evoked policy review, the school can confiscate your phone and if there is a plausible cause, “…send a notification to the appropriate legal authorities and/or other legal action may be pursued.” Not to mention the feelings and insecurities that may be pointed out in certain accounts. No one likes pictures being taken of them sleeping, especially in school. And people’s posture is not something we should be pointing out either. It is hurtful no matter whether you blur the faces or not. 

This is not about being “soft” or a “snowflake” and it doesn’t make someone weak to have their feelings hurt. It’s a form of bullying regardless. It’s not about “taking a joke” or laughing it off because cyberbullying never has and never will be something that should be allowed. I encourage the account owners to consider the feelings of others they are posting. I encourage them that even though their friends and other students may think it is funny or “just a joke” to post people, that there are feelings and emotions behind the people you’re posting. And to really think about how you would feel if you were to have something said about your posture or parking,

The accounts aren’t a form of humor. They’re a form of bullying.